Science: Undersea Secrets

One month after the first live German magnetic mine was captured on Nov.
24, 1939, Britain had produced a completely successful counter-weapon.
That weapon, the Admiralty announced last week, was a pair of long
electrified cables towed behind two minesweeping tugs. The cables set
up a magnetic field strong enough to explode all mines within a
ten-acre area, thus cleared wide shipping lanes in a hurry.

The Allies were less successful in coping with another once-secret Nazi
weapon, according to a German submarine commander at Flensburg last
week. He said that the acoustic torpedo (TIME, Oct. 11, 1943), fitted
with a...